Firehouse Kids: Severide's Daughter
by SophiaTab
Summary: I wrote this in a boring meeting. It's a drabble, just a comic flight of fancy of one possible future for several of Chicago's finest emergency responders though it fits into the universe of one of my larger (and not yet published) Chicago Fire fan fictions.
1. Chapter 1

**Firehouse Kids: Severide's Daughter**

Matt Casey hadn't seen Kelly Severide so angry in years. Right now the man's face was so livid with rage it looked like he could burst into flame at any second. "Where the hell is my daughter?" Severide said walking through the door.

Casey had a good idea where Darden Severide was, but decided playing dumb was the best strategy. "I should know this because?"

"Because she's with that hormone driven borderline pedophilic predator you spawned," Serveride said.

"He's only nineteen. They are barely two years apart in age," Case reminded Severide.

"All I know is when college age guys start hanging out with high school girls, they only want one thing," Severide said.

"He's a freshmen," Casey responded, but Serveride was already heading down the hallway.

That was the problem with friends. They knew the layout of your house. Severide stopped at Matthew Casey, Junior's bedroom door and knocked with his fist. "If this door doesn't open in five second, I'm kicking it in."

The door opened and Darden Shay Severide walked out. The girl had inherited her father's piercing eyes and smoky dark hair, but her figure and the bone structure of her face, delicate and petite, was all from her mother. It didn't help that she got Leslie Shay's flawless skin either. Every time Casey encountered the pretty seventeen-year-old he had no trouble understanding why his son who could ace every exam put before him could make the most absolute bonehead decisions in the universe where Darden was concerned.

Darden stared up at her father with big, dark eyes. She twisted her lips into bee stings. "Dad, can't we even study together in peace?"

"Not in his bedroom. Not anywhere there's a bed!" Severide declared.

To be on the safe side Case checked out his son's room. Everything seemed legit. Their laptops were open on the study table with a hologram of a molecule floating between them. Notepads and books appeared to have recently been used. The bed was a mess, but it only looked like the result of a teenage boy sleeping there. Then he noticed Matt Junior's neck. He locked gazes with his son. "Button it up," Casey mouthed noiselessly.

Matt Jr. scrambled to follow his father's instruction. A second later Darden and Severide came back into the room to retrieve her laptop and books. "It's too noisy to study at the library, Daddy."

"You can study at home. You'll have quiet, comfortable couches, and a great view of the city." Severide said.

"And you sitting there staring at Matt like we've already done something wrong," Darden complained.

"You won't have to worry about that for a while. You're grounded." Severide said.

Casey noticed Severide still picked up all his daughter's belongings and wondered how long the grounding would actually last. He would have to call Leslie tonight. She was the parent that actually disciplined Darden.

"Can I at least kiss Matty, good-bye?" Darden asked.

Severide nodded grimly. The kids liplocked for a moment before Severide pulled Darden away. "It is still not too late for you to finish high school in a convent."

After they left Casey gazed down at his son and almost started to laugh. "Matty, I am going to have to remember that name next time you complain about not having a car. You dodged a bullet this afternoon, Matty."

Matt Junior frowned. "Thanks for defending me, Dad."

Casey shrugged. "I didn't let him hit you. And if he had saw those hickeys on your neck, he would have beaten you senseless. He is partially right. You guys need to cool off for a while."

"But she's the one, Dad. I mean, I love her. We're going to spend our whole lives together." Matt Junior said.

"Then a month apart won't change anything. You're grounded too." Casey said.

"Oh come on, we don't have a house rule about no dating partners in bedrooms like Mr. Severide does," Matt Junior protested.

Casey thought for a moment. "We do now. I'm too young to be a grandfather."


	2. Chapter 2

_I didn't intend to continue this tale, but I got stuck in another boring meeting._

**Firehouse Kids: Severide's Daughter, Part II **

"Dad's being ridiculous," Darden Severide complained

"He's being your dad," Leslie Shay Severide replied. She dumped a basket of clean clothes onto the table. Laundry was the pits, but if it gave her some time to talk with her daughter when Darden would be less guarded about her personal life, all the mind-numbing sorting and folding was worth it.

"But you don't agree with him?" Darden asked hopefully.

Shay leveled her most serious gaze at Darden. "I don't want a repeat of what happened with Jimmy Mills ever. If you're going to have sex, you have to be responsible."

It worked. Darden dropped her innocent, baby princess act. "It won't happen again, Mom. I swear."

Shay nodded.

Unfortunately, Darden didn't drop all her attitude. "But you have to agree he's being a hypocrite?"

Shay had always known this day was coming. Honestly she was surprised it hadn't happened sooner and with more fireworks. Discovering your parents were human was a teenage rite of passage, but rarely a pleasant one for all parties. It was probably better that Darden was revealing her newfound knowledge under these circumstances. Shay could only imagine the chaos that would ensue when Kelly realized the kids were growing up and they actually knew real details about their pasts. Hopefully that moment would not happen in the middle of an argument between Darden and Kelly. It would probably render Kelly speechless if not catatonic. "What is it that you think you know?" Shay asked.

Her calmness had the desired effect. That gleam in Darden's eyes, so much like her father's expression when he was up to something, faded. "That me and K2 were the product of a drunken hook-up, but everything turned out great."

Dawson had probably told Darden that. Jimmy's death had united the two of them in a bond of grief even stronger than their god mother/god daughter relationship. At times, Shay worried that she should intervene and demand they spend less time together, but Dawson had not handled losing Jimmy well. Of course, neither had Darden. When Matthew Casey Junior finally got up the nerve to ask Darden out, Shay had secretly rejoiced. "Your dad and I were adults with a lot of life experience at the time and even then it was purely a lucky accident that our lives have turned out as good as they have."

More like an unbelievable miracle. Eighteen years ago Shay could have never predicted this would be her life or that she would be as happy as she was now. But she did firmly believe that every decision she and Kelly had made about their family fell into the category of do not attempt to recreate this scenario.

"I'm the envy of all my friends: two parents with an intact marriage that are still crazy about each other," Darden gushed.

"We have an open marriage," Shay reminded Darden.

"So you claim. I am not stupid, Mom. You and Dad don't step out on each other. You're more monogamists than any of the parents I know even though you try to claim you don't have to be." Darden said.

She had been rehearsing what to say to Darden and K2 for years, but still couldn't find the right lines. How could she explain the slide into heterosexual monogamy by inertia? Should she even? She and Kelly had gotten married for reasons of legal expediency before the twins were born. Then twin babies had felt like ten times the work instead of just multiplied by two. On the rare occasions when they had enough energy for sex, neither of them had the additional energy necessary to go looking for someone new. They were sharing raising two kids. They might was well share a bed. Once the twins got older the pattern hadn't changed. Kelly knew which buttons to push to make her body hum perfectly. And if he felt any wanderlust for variety at midlife, he certainly hadn't expressed it. "The relationship between your dad and me is between us," Shay said finally.

"You love each other. Sometimes when Dad looks at you it's like some junior high geek staring at cheerleaders. Why do you always refer to him as your dad or my children's father? I know you call him Kelly when it's just the two of you alone, but you never refer to him as your husband. It's like that word doesn't exist in your vocabulary." Darden said.

Darden's question ripped open wounds Shay had thought were gone. "Look, I know at seventeen you think you know everything, but you don't. The relationship between me and your dad is just that, our relationship and I am not going to discuss it with you."

_If she rolls her eyes at me, I may just slap her._ Luckily Kelly and K2 arriving home interrupted them. The smells of takeout barbecue flooded the kitchen. "How's my two favorite girls?" Kelly said swinging two bags of containers on to the counter.

"I'm a grown-up," Shay said sourly. It looked like Darden wasn't the only person she needed to have a stern conversation with tonight. She hated it, hated it, hated it, when he referred to either her or Darden as girls. She dodged Kelly when he tried to kiss her and fist bumped her son. K2 looked just like his father without the crazy recklessness that had possessed Kelly senior when he was a teenager. Or at least his recklessness had better focus and direction. Instead of cars or chasing girls her son was obsessed with oil well blowouts and the specialists who put out their spectacular, colossal fires. Well, it was in his blood.

Kelly moved on to Darden and caught her up in a bear hug. "This one's still a girl. You're still Daddy's little girl aren't you?"

Darden pulled free of her father's embrace. "I'm old enough to vote."

"Does that mean you're old enough to stop getting an allowance?" Kelly teased.

A scowl crossed Darden's face, then her expression became too innocent. "I suppose I could take some extra babysitting gigs. Mr. Casey can always use me. He wants to start teaching classes at the Academy."

Joviality fled Kelly's face in an instant. "Hell, no."

Shay handed him a stack of plates. "Go set the alcove table. I don't want barbecue sauce anywhere near my clean laundry." She didn't have to tell K2 to grab silverware and napkins.

It turned out to be a nice family dinner. Andy's ribs were always good even if they were messy and Darden didn't mentioning spending more time in the same house as Matthew Casey Junior. Trouble started when K2 mentioned they had been at the marina.

"Everything all right with the boat?" Shay asked.

"Yeah, everything's fine. I was just getting K2 set up with keys." Kelly explained.

"He's too young to go out on the Lake alone," Shay said. Operating a cabin cruiser even as small as the one they owned was a lot more dangerous than driving a car.

K2 turned pale. Kelly looked a little nervous. Something unusual was going on. "He's not. I just want him to have keys so he can go check on things for me. You know, clean up the cabin and stock up the cabinets before a trip."

"I could do that too. How about getting me a set of keys, Dad," Darden said brightly.

Kelly paused before replying. "Since when do you like cleaning the boat? Let your brother make the Costco runs."

Now Shay got it. The boat was a floating bedroom. What teenage boy wouldn't volunteer to do extra chores for that. Darden was right. Kelly was being one hell of a hypocrite.


	3. Chapter 3

**Firehouse Kids: Severide's Daughter, Part** **III**

"We need to talk about K2 having keys to the boat," Shay said after dinner once the kids had scattered.

Kelly seemed to understand what she was getting at without her having to spell it out. 'He's not going to take it out on the lake. I'm not giving him keys for the engine just the doors and generator. It's the best solution. In my day a guy could fool around with a girl in a car. Nowadays if a cop catches him doing that, it's an arrest for public indecency."

"He doesn't even have a girlfriend," Shay said.

A look crossed Kelly's face that she really did not approve of. "Well, not one that he would bring home to Mom."

Now her blood boiled. "Kelly, do you even listen to yourself when you speak? You're ready to lock our daughter up in a tower until she hits menopause, but you want to turn our son loose on the town."

At least he had the decency to look embarrassed. "It's different with boys," he said finally.

She always suspected Kelly would have this double standard when it came to the children. It was one of those times she didn't relish being right. "No, it isn't," Shay said.

"K2 can't get pregnant," Kelly said.

"He can get someone else pregnant and eighteen years of child support, plus a human life brought into the world by teenage parents not capable of raising it, is not a small complication," Shay replied.

"I've been talking to him about the importance of condoms since he was thirteen. And dental dams and how no matter how horny you are don't stick your dick in the crazy. I even told him stuff about abstinence and that cheap sex isn't that fulfilling. Like he's going to believe that." Kelly said.

"But somehow you believe you daughter is going to be completely immune to sexual impulses?" Shay said.

"Girls her age usually aren't into sex unless some guy is pressuring them. I got Matt junior scared enough to keep his hands off my daughter's virginity." Kelly said.

She should have kept silent. She never intended to break her daughter's confidence, but the self-satisfied smirk on Kelly's face at that moment sent her over the edge. Darden was their daughter, not his property. She moved closer to Kelly and took his chin in her hand as if she was admonishing a misbehaving child. "Well, that ship has already sailed. Jimmy Mills was never scared of you."

For a moment his jaw just hung there after her hand dropped away and she thought he might start to see reason once the shock wore off. Then the crimson started coming into his face. "That son-of-bitch!"

"Don't speak ill of the dead," Shay snapped.

"If he wasn't dead already, I would break his neck. I feel like I ought to drive over there tonight and break Peter Mills jaw just for being the father of that little scumbag." Kelly said. He punched one of the couch pillows too hard to just be making a joke.

"You will do nothing to upset his still grieving parents," Shay said firmly. "He was a nice young man. He and Darden had been going steady since junior high school. What did you think was going to happen?" Shay moved the couch pillows out of his range.

Kelly's glare held venom. "How long? How long was that asshole fucking my daughter?"

Somehow she kept her voice even. "I have no idea. Darden doesn't share every detail of her life with me. I found out one night because their condom broke. Jimmy called me immediately asking about the morning after pill. I think he was more scared than Darden."

"He damn well had reason to be," Kelly muttered.

"He was afraid of getting his girlfriend pregnant before they were old enough to be parents. He wasn't afraid of you." Shay said.

Kelly got up from the couch. He started to walk into the kitchen, but stopped. "I'm her father. You should have told me."

"Why? So you could act like a patriarchal jerk? Embarrass yourself in front of old friends? Alienate your daughter?" Shay asked. "She'll always be your daughter, but she's not a little girl anymore."

Later that night, Shay heard a knock on her door. She opened the door to find Darden looking as ravaged as the night they had found out Jimmy Mills had died. Automatically she wrapped her daughter in her arms. Panic spiked in her that there had been a meltdown between Darden and Kelly. "I am sorry, honey. I never meant to betray your confidence." Shay said.

"I don't care about that." But Darden sounded scared. "Why is Dad sleeping on the couch?"

"Because he's being a jerk and I can't sleep in the same room with him when he is acting like that," Shay replied.

There was another knock on the door. She opened the door, saw K2 and pulled her son into her arms too.

"Dad is staring at the ceiling like a zombie," K2 said.

"He does that sometimes when his lizard brain is working overtime to process new information," Shay said.


	4. Chapter 4

**Firehouse Kids: Severide's Daughter, Part IV **

Kelly Severide woke up to the smell of bacon with undertones of fresh brewed coffee. Since it usually took a day and a half for Shay to get less mad enough to actually talk to him and Darden considered bacon to be injecting fat straight into her thighs, the kitchen was probably safe. No sooner had he walked through the door than K2 thrust a plate in his hands. K2 was too cheerful. "Just in time for bacon and Eggos, Dad."

"Where's your mom and your sister?" Kelly asked.

In an instant the smile was gone and he was staring at the face his son would have as a man. "Mom took Darden to the American Girl Café for brunch. Mom only does that when Darden is upset. Really upset, like after Grandpa shot himself." K2 poured coffee for the both of them and dished out waffles and bacon.

Kelly found himself making excuses. "You guys have heard your mother and me fight before. Remember driver's ed.?"

K2 nodded, but his expression didn't change. "I don't think Mom realized how messed up Darden was until last night. Darden isn't handling Jimmy's death well. Overhearing you and mom fight about her and Jimmy stirred up more of the worse in Darden."

"Did you know about Darden and Jimmy?" Kelly asked.

"It wasn't a hook up. Jimmy had been in love about Darden since before any of us figured out how the parts went together. One time, Rory Hogan made this smart ass remark about her. It took three guys, including me, to pull Jimmy off him." K2 explained.

That was a Mills whatever they felt they felt hard. Kelly remembered hearing about that fight. The Hogan boy's jaw had been wired together for months. Okay, so maybe his daughter's romantic life wasn't as bad as it could be. However he was still more than slightly disappointed in his son. "It never bothered you that some guy was messing with your sister?"

K2 met his gaze without flinching. "Jimmy, I could have fought any day, but Darden would have kicked my ass."

He could respect that answer. And if Jimmy Mills and Darden had been older, say in their thirties, he might have even considered it funny. "So, what do you think about Matthew Casey Junior?"

K2 didn't smile. "My sister's going to rip out his heart then stomp on it."


End file.
